Here's a good starter for ten, as Bamber might say...
What car requires half the front end dismantled to change an accumulator sphere?
A TCT XM of course
I bit the bullet this morning after recovering from my Activa Pre-MOT yesterday and got the nosecone off the XM so that I could pull the rads sufficiently far forward to reach the accumulator sphere..
A couple of issues emerged. The O/S wheelarch bumper mount has dissolved to nothing but all bits rescued and there's enough sound metal left to re-fabricate it. The N/S is perfect
The N/S bumper skirt captive nut tore out of the nosecone but again, a simple patch will sort that - no problem.
The steel bumper insert is a bit crusty but a coat of rust killer and a few coats of paint will sort that...
With the nose off and the rads pulled as far forward as possible, it was just possible to get a good strap around the accumulator and crack it off and ease it out.
Good job I did that job, the accumulator was ruptured and spilt a lovely amount of LHM. Not sure how it was sealing either as the old seal was badly crimped.
With the best I could muster, a centre sphere at around 45 bars has been used as a new accumulator and now the hydraulics are a lot happier so it was worth doing the job
I'm still curious to know if the FDV is entirely happy. It gently hisses continually unless steering assistance is needed. That's good as the hiss is the result of the steering pressure regulator operating and excess LHM being returned to the reservoir. The only thing I note is that assistance is available as soon as the engine is started and I'm not sure that's absolutely right - my old Sinker did not give steering assistance until the accumulator was fully charged and normal height reached...
That's enough for today, next jobs are to repair the bumper mounting and swap the transmission fluid...
Bizarrely, the ABS light has gone out
XMs - don't you just love 'em...